Hot Rod Lincoln (1972) 12/6/20

Today's “Great Song of the '70s is...if nothing else...a fun little tune with a long history!

It all started in 1950, when a man named Arkie Shibley released a record called “Hot Rod Race,” about 2 hot rods racing through San Pedro, California, when all of a sudden, they're overtaken by a kid driving a souped up Ford with a Lincoln V-12 engine. It was a car song WAY ahead of its time. (The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and others wouldn't corner the “car song market” for another 13 years.)

BUT...Singer/songwriter Charley Ryan had an idea. Why not write and record an “answer song” from the perspective of the kid driving the Ford?

And that's how “Hot Rod Lincoln” was born!

Charley released it in 1955...and again in 1959...with little success. But then country singer Johnny Bond covered it in 1960, and it became a Top 10 hit on the Country Chart.

Finally, in 1972, a western swing group called Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen (named after the Sci-Fi B-film serials of the 1950s) released THEIR version...and...to use (and mix) the song's metaphor: “came out of nowhere to overtake all the previous versions!”

It was fast, it was fun, and it was a Top 10 hit: #7 on Canada's Top 40, and #9 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Commander Cody was a one-hit wonder...but maybe we should call him a “one-hit FUN-der! :-)

Hot Rod Lincoln: A “Great Song of 1972!”

Johnny Bond:

Charley Ryan: